Download apollo (ist-2001-34372) project presentation

APOLLO (IST-2001-34372)
INTELLIGENT TYRE FOR ACCIDENT-FREE TRAFFIC
PROJECT PRESENTATION
Apollo Consortium
Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)
FI
DaimlerChrysler AG (DC)
D
Helsinki University of Technology (HUT)
FI
Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH)
D
Magneti Marelli Sistemi Elettronici S.p.A.
(MM)
I
Nokian Tyres plc (NR)
FI
Pirelli Pneumatici SPA (PIRELLI)
I
Total cost 4 737 716 €
Commission funding 2 790 656 €
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION - DG INFSO
INFORMATION SOCIETIES TECHNOLOGY (IST) PROGRAMME
This project has been partially funded by the European Commission DG INFSO under the IST
programme. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project partners listed
herein, and in no way represents the view of the European Commission or its services.
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1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................4
2. OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................5
3. REQUIREMENTS FOR VEHICLE APPLICATIONS .................................6
4. INNOVATION AREAS ...............................................................................6
5. DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF TYRE-VEHICLE SYSTEM
BEHAVIOUR NEEDED ...................................................................................7
6. DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL SENSOR SYSTEM...............8
7. TURNING TO A MECHATRONIC TYRE-WHEEL SYSTEM .....................9
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1.
Introduction
Research and development work in automotive industry has been focusing at an intensified pace on developing vehicles with intelligent power train management, chassis
control systems and driver support functions such as ADAS for improved lateral and
longitudinal control of the car, as well as for monitoring tasks. Up to now, tyres have
been only rubber systems representing 'terra incognito' in Advanced Driver Assistance
System (ADAS) area without providing vehicle control systems or a driver with any
information. Tyres are, however, the most important system for the contact point between road and vehicle. The gradual introduction of intelligent functions in cars has
opened up new possibilities for improving road traffic safety. Actually, a part of
automotive industry has created the vision of accident-free traffic. A further step, in
addition to the ones mentioned above to realise this vision, is the introduction of an
intelligent tyre and the integration of this system into a part of vehicle control systems
(see Figure 1).
A project called APOLLO funded by the European Commission Information Society
Directorate-General was launched 1 March 2002 to investigate the potential of a novel
type of tyre with integrated ”intelligence” to meet the requirements of advanced vehicle technology, driver support systems and external users. The consortium consists of
a car manufacturer, DaimlerChrysler AG; two tyre manufacturers, Nokian Tyres plc
and PIRELLI; vehicle electronics manufacturer Magneti Marelli and research sector
representatives, Technical University of Aachen, Helsinki University of Technology
and Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). VTT also acts as a co-ordinator.
Peripheral Data
Innovative
vehicles for an
accident free
traffic
Drive Train Management
Mechatronic systems
20XX
Sensing and automatic control
200X
Additional functionality
2000
Single subsystems
Steering
Braking
Suspension
Tyre
Figure 1. Road map to intelligent vehicles enabling accident-free driving.
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2.
Objectives
The objectives for the project producing a prototype for an intelligent tyre are 1) to
increase road traffic safety by adding an intelligent tyre system to the advanced vehicle control and driver support systems, 2) to enable improvements for vehicle control
systems, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and chassis control systems,
3) to enable the introduction of innovative services concerning tyre and road conditions for different user groups both inside and outside the vehicle.
The term 'intelligent tyre' here does not literally mean that 'intelligence' resides inside
the tyre. Rather, 'intelligent' implies that the future tyre will not be a passive rubber
compound on a vehicle but an active and essential part of vehicle's control systems
that contribute to both driving comfort and safety. The intelligent tyre provides additional data for control systems inside the vehicle and external users. Therefore, the
project aims at making these data available at a communication interface on the vehicle. Using these data for the development of new control and monitoring systems will
be a task outside the scope of this project.
The three main research and technology objectives for the project are as follows:
1) Introducing innovative sensors for monitoring tyre condition, road condition and
tyre-road interaction.
2) Developing novel solutions for a wireless communication interface and a batteryless power supply enabling intelligent tyre systems.
3) Creating an 'intelligent' tyre: integrating all electronic components into the tyre by
means of mechatronic design, taking into account processes of manufacturing,
handling and maintenance, and recycling.
The overall- and R&D-objectives of the project are achieved by means of the following activities:
•
Investigating the needs and expectations of various user groups concerning an intelligent tyre.
•
Showing the added value the intelligent tyre can provide for traffic safety and
comfort as well as providing data for different user groups also outside the vehicle
with other services.
•
Defining a reference application for the intelligent tyre prototype.
•
Developing a novel sensor system mechanically integrated into the tyre such as
capacitive sensors for sensing the following signals or parameters: forces exerted
on the tyre, slip, friction potential, tread wear and prediction of tyre damage, road
surface qualities.
•
Developing a new type of a wireless communication interface between tyre and
vehicle.
•
Developing a novel power supply technique without a battery.
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•
Developing an intelligent tyre/wheel prototype with integration of sensor system,
communication interface and a power supply.
•
Integrating the intelligent tyre prototype into a vehicle and verifying in real driving conditions that the signals from the tyre are available for vehicle systems as
specified.
•
Disseminating the results of the work throughout the project life-span and linking
the project to other ADAS-projects.
•
Preparing the way and drawing up a road map for the exploitation of intelligent
tyre systems.
The outcome of the project is a novel and innovative prototype of an intelligent
tyre. This mechatronic tyre system consists of a tyre, an integrated sensor system, a wireless communication interface and a batteryless power supply.
3.
Requirements for vehicle applications
A detailed investigation of potential applications and relevant requirements is essentialto ensure a product orientated research work during the project. These activities
should avoid a technology driven development for example of a single sensor system,
which causes problems for the system integration in later project phases. The potential
benefits for the application and the user, which might be achieved by the introduction
of an envisaged sensor system, should be clearly stated before the detailed development and design activities are started. It is necessary to study both systems and technologies as well as the applications, because there are a lot of interdependencies. The
description and evaluation of technologies will be carried out in two separate steps.
The evaluation of technologies for sensors, information transmission and power
transmission is based on the potential improvements for applications and users. By
using the results of this evaluation, a reference application for the project is selected.
The most important results of “Requirements”-part of the work are the systematic description and assessment of technologies and potential applications for an intelligent
tyre/wheel system and the qualified selection of a reference application. The description of the reference application includes the relevant requirements. These are important contributions for the definition and specification of the project verification and a
product orientated development of sensor systems as well as solutions for power supply and communication.
4.
Innovation areas
The areas in intelligent tyre technology where new knowledge and innovations are
needed can be listed as follows:
1. Detailed understanding of tyre-vehicle system dynamic behaviour,
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2. Development of a multifunctional sensor system, applicable to tyres
3. Development of a wireless communication and a batteryless power supply tyrevehicle interface,
4. Creating a mechatronic tyre/wheel system by integrating electronic components
into a tyre/wheel system,
5. Enabling customer driven applications and improvements for chassis control systems, ADAS, traffic services by providing with information from intelligent tyre
for passenger cars as well as for commercial vehicles.
The research work in these five areas enables towards the end of the project the creation of an 'intelligent' tyre system - a novel and innovative outcome of the work - that
is able to provide various users with information both on tyre itself and tyre-road interaction available for various purposes (see Figure 2). The goal of the project is to
make this information available at an interface such as PC - later in-vehicle terminal
inside the vehicle.
External users
&
services
Tyre/RoadMonitoring
Driver
Information
Sensor
Vehicle
Dynamics
Chassis/
VehicleControl
Figure 2. Innovation in intelligent tyre system supporting chassis/vehicle control for
improved road safety.
5.
Detailed understanding of tyre-vehicle system behaviour
needed
A vehicle is controlled practically only with forces acting in tyre-road contact (see
Figure 3). Because of safety requirements, wear resistance and controllability tyreroad contact has been already for long an active research field. There is a rapidly
growing need to have more precise information from tyre-road contact and to understand the whole tyre-vehicle system behaviour. The multi-body-simulation tool is
needed for analysing tyre-vehicle-systems. The significance of forces and torques
acting in a tyre-vehicle interaction needs to be better understood. The link between
laboratory tests and real road driving tests must be confirmed. Due to the continuously
changing environmental conditions the tyre behaviour in real road testing consists
mainly of comparisons between tested tyres and reference tyres. In laboratory conditions almost perfect repetition of processes can be maintained and, consequently, bet-
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ter understanding of several physical phenomena achieved. Combining simulation environment with real measured data and a thorough understanding of phenomena is
also one area of an innovative work in this project.
The activities on investigating tyre-wheel
behaviour and developing integrated models are concentrated on those research
activities, which are necessary the for
development, assessment and evaluation
of appropriate sensor concepts.
Figure 3. Forces exerted on a car in
tyre-road contact.
6.
Development of multifunctional sensor system
The project is aiming at a solution for real-time and accurate monitoring of driving
situations, which are detected at the only contact points between a moving wheeled
vehicle and a road surface. Mounting sensing equipment on a tyre gives an opportunity to detect various phenomena practically directly in the tyre-road contact. The advantages of such a location for sensors can be illustrated by the sensations one obtains
when walking barefoot on different surfaces. The following table shows a structured
overview on interesting signals and parameters.
Table 1. Signals and parametres focused on.
Vehicle dynamics
•
•
•
•
•
Forces/torques
Friction parameter
Speed, slip
Max. contact force
Detecting aquaplaning
Tyre
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pressure
Temperature
Tread wear
Damage, stress
Tyre type
Age
Logistic parameters
Road
•
•
•
Texture of road surface
Type of road (e.g. concrete, asphalt,)
Road condition: dry, wet,
icy, snowy
Adopting different sensors into tyre itself has been traditionally found very complicated, and the expected lifetime of the sensors has been short. Furthermore, understanding friction phenomena is still limited, especially concerning adverse road conditions such as wet surface, slush and ice.
Moreover, it has not yet been solved how sensors survive during both the manufacturing process, and driving situations throughout the whole lifetime of a tyre.
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The knowledge about the tyre itself such as forces exerted on tyre, tyre history, wear
rate, latent damages and pressure are vital for the driver and maintenance personnel.
Consequently, tyre sensor technology faces still many challenges.
In the sensor area also a possibility to take advantage of new generation technologies
in applications other than vehicle will make it very promising. The main focus of this
project on sensor technology is, however, to develop a novel sensor system by embedding sensors in the tyre. For this integration a capacitive sensor seems to be a
promising approach. Compared to micro-mechanical state-of-the-art sensors such as
Hall-, SAW- (Surface Acoustic Wave) and SWT- (Side Wall Torsion), embedded capacitive sensors could measure a lot of needed phenomena in tyre-road contact and
operate in real road conditions cost-effectively which has not been achieved by means
of the state-of-the-art sensors. The advantages of capacitive sensors in comparison to
state-of-the-art sensors can be described by the following points:
•
•
•
•
7.
Integration into various parts of tyre/wheel possible,
Due to the possibilities of for different locations, also enables measuring different
parameters by using the same sensor concept,
Can be easily connected to communication system and has low power consumption,
A robust and cost effective sensor.
Turning to a Mechatronic tyre-wheel system
Towards the end of the project the intelligent tyre prototype will be designed and constructed. A rough design-concept of the intelligent tyre system is developed based on
the results of the reference application defined in an early phase of the project. The
results of the first steps investigating tyre-vehicle system behaviour as well as the results of the development work on sensors and associated communication interface and
power supply are considered for this rough design. This concept is used for making
first specifications of the prototype system.
Based on the first concept of the intelligent tyre the necessary research activities are
started to investigate and to develop feasible materials and structures for the mechanical design of the tyre. Additionally procedures for manufacturing a mechatronic tyre
and production processes are studied.
Finally, the prototype electronics including sensors, communication interface and
power supply are integrated into the tyre. The work includes also mechanical design
for mounting, packaging and cooling. The intelligent tyre will be constructed based on
the design work. The prototype will be then tested and the feasibility of the tyre prototype will be verified, taking into account the results from the investigation of tyrevehicle system behaviour.
The result of the work in the APOLLO-project as described above will be a prototype
of an intelligent tyre system which is integrated into a vehicle and verified in a demonstration of the functionality.